Rental affordability worst ever seen for minimum wage earners, Anglicare says

Less than 1% of private rental properties in Australia are affordable for full-time workers earning the minimum wage, while people on Centrelink payments are struggling to afford rooms in share houses, Anglicare Australia says.

The snapshot looks at data from rental listings over a single weekend and assesses whether the properties would be affordable for different households, including single people on minimum wage or the jobseeker payment. The report defines affordable rent as being no more than 30% of a household budget.

None of the listings analysed were affordable for a person on youth allowance and only four rooms in share houses were affordable for a person on jobseeker.

The executive director at Anglicare Australia, Kasy Chambers, said the drop in affordability was shocking.

As an example, she said 16% of the listings this year were affordable for a two-person household on minimum wage, a proportion that has decreased over the past decade.

Even though Australia had built a record number of homes over the last 10 years, rents keep soaring, she said.

Nina, who did not want her real name used, is a 50-year-old woman on the DSP.

After six months of searching by herself and with friends, she moved out of the city. Her disability pension is $1,100 a fortnight and 53% goes to renting an apartment in regional Victoria.

Nina said building more affordable homes was the long-term solution, but she also wanted to see restrictions on short-term rental websites like Airbnb.